A History of Mathematics: From Mesopotamia to Modernity covers the evolution of mathematics through time and across the major Eastern and Western civilizations. It begins in Babylon, then describes the trials and tribulations of the Greek mathematicians.

Provides a world view of mathematics, balancing ancient, early modern and modern history. Problems are taken from their original sources, enabling students to understand how mathematicians in various times and places solved mathematical problems.

In the 17th century, the great scientist and mathematician Galileo Galilei noted that the book of nature "cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures, without which it is not humanly possible to understand a single word of it."